Privacy

There's never been a better time to switch to iPhone. Whether you're tempted for yourself or looking to help the Android owner in your life, the all-new, all-better iPhone 6 and iPhone-6-plus make the move more compelling than ever — especially when you add the value of privacy and security.

A number of big-name tech companies are teaming up to lobby the Senate to pass legislation that would limit the reach of the NSA's spying activities, Bloomberg reported today. The coalition of tech giants includes the likes of Apple, Google, and Microsoft, among others.

A congressional advisory committee will be taking the initial step Thursday to discuss the legal ramifications of protecting Internet privacy. Prompted by the recent hacks resulting in the leak of nude photos of celebrities like the high profile case involving actress Jennifer Lawrence, the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee will be discussing the topic of privacy and the legal remedies against hackers, websites, and those partaking in revenge porn.

Since the iCloud hacking attempts, Apple has taken a firmer stance on privacy and how it safeguards user information and data. With iOS 8, this is becoming more important as Apple is allowing third-party apps to tap into HomeKit for a centralized home automation hub, HealthKit for health and fitness tracking, Apple Pay for payments, and keyboard extensions. As such, Apple is requiring third-party developers to appropriately disclose privacy policies in the iTunes App Store when they list their apps and as required by law.

Normally when you're walking around with a WiFi-enabled device, if it's not connected to a network, it's broadcasting probes in order to try and find known networks. These probes would be sent using your phone's WiFi MAC address, which is a unique and normally persistent value. This means that anybody monitoring these probes, say in a department store for example, can persistently track you through a store and across multiple visits. This information isn't tied to your personal identity, but a lot of information about your shopping habits could be gleaned from this data by analytics companies, and some users aren't thrilled about not having a say in this. And remember, this isn't just an iPhone thing, this is a WiFi thing. This is what devices do. But Apple decided they could do better.

FBI Director James Comey expresses deep concern about the new encryption technologies that Apple had built into the release of iOS 8 and Google will implement with the forthcoming launch of Android L. These new encryption methods are designed to keep data safe and for tech companies to avoid the uncomfortable position of being compelled to hand over private personal data to law enforcement officials. However, Comey says that this move could thwart the fight and prevention of crime.

Apple has quietly implemented in-transit encryption for iCloud emails. Emails sent to or from an @icloud.com or @me.com address are now encrypted. Previously Apple only encrypted emails sent between iCloud addresses. The encryption will help to secure emails moving between servers from snooping, particularly on the part of the government.

Following China's decision to call iOS location tracking a threat to their national security, Apple has posted a lengthy article on its Chinese website, both in Chinese and English, reaffirming their longstanding commitment to privacy.

The UK government is looking to reinforce powers of security services to require internet and phone providers to maintain records of customer email and calls. Emergency laws are to be introduced into the Commons next Monday, following private talks and gaining support of both Labour and the Liberal Democrats on the basis that there will be new board to oversee the functioning of new powers. The move is an effort to continue protecting UK citizens from external threats.

Every day our iPhones and iPads become a little more integrated in our lives. Every day they learn a little more about us and become more capable than they were before. And every day many of us make a choice to hand over more information about ourselves in exchange for features and convenience. One such piece of information is our location. There's a seemingly endless list of apps that may want to track your location for a variety reasons. From mapping your bike rides to recommending nearby restaurants, many of us grant apps permission to access our location every day. As more apps request and make use of this type of sensitive information, it becomes increasingly important for users to have more granular control over which apps access what information and when. With iOS 8, we will see some noteworthy changes to location permissions intended to provide more transparency, and give users more control.